The present invention is directed to electronic signs and signage including hanging signage presenting highly visible visual warnings, messages, or other information to drivers both during the regular course of driving and in emergency situations.
Powered traffic signals or “stop lights” have existed since the early twentieth century. These signals have remained essentially the same in general concept with a few added refinements added such as turn arrows and symbolic “walk” or “don't walk” messages. Over the years, ground travel in and around cities has become increasingly congested with growing vehicular traffic including passenger cars, trucks, emergency vehicles, busses, trains and the like all moving through densely-populated areas.
While non-passenger vehicles such as police cars, fire trucks and ambulances typically emit visual and audible warnings as they approach intersections, they frequently lack the right-of-way, and warnings emitted from their vehicles are often unseen and/or unheard, leading to collisions and injury. In view of the increased density and speed of vehicular traffic and the current primitive state of signage technology, it is desirable for municipalities to provide significantly improved signaling and signage at intersections for better vehicular flow, safety, and to provide warnings and information among other reasons.
Known systems in the art for interfacing traffic control with emergency vehicles are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,398 to Bystrak et al. discloses an enhanced group addressing system including an apparatus and method for addressing a spaced-apart detectors or control units in a multiple zone detection system. This system, which shortens the time needed for a centrally located control element to communicate with the detectors, is used for existing traffic control systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,113 to Hamer discloses a system and method for transmitting data in an optical traffic preemption system. Using this system an ambulance or other emergency vehicle may optically transmit data from an optical emitter to a detector mounted along a traffic route via a stream of light pulses. The light pulses cause a traffic signal to change allowing the approaching emergency vehicle to pass. This system lacks any communication with a central traffic command.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,113,108 to Bachelder, et al. discloses an emergency vehicle control system traffic loop preemption system. The system uses existing inductive traffic loops that are either “car-active” or “car-passive.” In the “car-active” system, a passive element having position information transmits an ID tag and the position information to a transceiver in the vehicle when an emergency vehicle is detected by the existing inductive traffic loop. In the “car-passive” system, a transceiver at the intersection is activated to send an excitation signal to a transponder on the emergency vehicle, which responds with the emergency vehicle ID. This system interfaces with a central traffic control, but lacks any method of redundantly checking to make sure signal changes occur.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,610 to Davidson et al. discloses an emergency vehicle warning and traffic control system. This system provides early warning of the approach of an emergency vehicle and provides a display to indicate the direction from which the emergency vehicle is approaching, and preemption of traffic signals. A transmitter mounted on an emergency vehicle transmits a signal whenever it is on an emergency call, which is received by infrared receivers positioned at an intersection. This system relies on infra-red transmission of data, and cannot easily integrate with existing traffic central control computer systems.
Since known systems are inefficient and ineffective in providing information to drivers for collision avoidance or other purposes, the present invention as described herein takes major steps forward to accomplishing these objectives. One important goal of the present invention is to provide a more effective traffic signal preemption system. Currently in the market, devices exist to preempt the normal operation of a traffic signal, such as a strobe light system. While this is useful in emergencies, drivers are often unaware of where the emergency vehicles are as they approach an intersection. By providing programmed LED text and graphical movement, the present invention aims to solve problems in the prior art and reduce emergency response time. Another goal of the present invention is to provide a signal control and data transmission system capable of easy integration into existing systems known in the art.